AIECE general report

The world economy registered one of the highest growth rates ever in 2006. Growth was particularly high in Asia, Latin America and Russia. Also in the euro area, economic growth accelerated through 2006, boosted by exports and a recovery in internal demand. However, international growth is expected to slow down ahead as the ongoing slowdown in the US economy feeds through to the world economy.

Statistics Norway is a member of AIECE (Association d'Instituts Europeens de Conjoncture Economique), an association for politically independent european forecasting institutes. AIECE has 33 member institutes from 20 countries. Twice a year AIECE consensus forecasts are published in a report prepared by one of the member institutes. Spring 2007, the report was written by Statistics Norway.

The report is written by Andreas Benedictow, Roger Bjørnstad, Pål Boug, Torbjørn Eika, Andreas Fagereng, Torfinn Harding, Håvard Hungnes, Eilev Jansen, Jørn-Arne Jørgensen, Dag Kolsrud, Lars Lindholt and Eivind Tveter.

We would like to thank Ådne Cappelen and Roger Hammersland for comments and suggestions and Marit Berger Gundersen, Marit Vågdal and Wenche Drzwi for technical assistance. We would also like to thank all colleagues at the AIECE institutes for providing their answers to the questionnaire.